On a bluemoon in October 2020 I invited CAConrad to talk about their thinking and practicing somatic rituals in the process of writing. They talk about listening to extinct species, watching two suns rise, and the power of the material embodiment of energy. Death as being a teacher, a lover, and a partner in shifting and sharpening attention around ecological and structural injustices. CAConrads's poems come up in and of the world as shards that cut, reflect and shimmer.
CAConrad has been working with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual since 1975. They are the author of AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration (Wave Books, 2021). Other titles include While Standing in Line for Death, Ecodeviance and The Book of Frank. They received a Creative Capital grant, a Pew Fellowship, a Lambda Literary Award, and a Believer Magazine Book Award. They teach at Columbia University in New York City and Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam. Read more about CAConrad.
Siegmar Zacharias is a performance artist, researcher, and death doula. She collaborates with humans and uncontrollable materials, such as smoke, slime, drool, and the nervous system, exploring generative ethical dynamics of transformation and radical change. She explores performance as collective grief-work in the tension between intimacy and alienation.